Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Ring-shaped.
  • adjective Botany Rolled up in the form of a coil with the tip in the center, as an unexpanded fern frond.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make a circle (upon) with a pair of compasses.
  • Circular or ring-shaped: as, a circinate eruption: specifically, in botany, applied to that mode of vernation or foliation in which the leaf is rolled up on its axis from the apex toward the base, like a shepherd's crook, as in the fronds of ferns and the leaves of the sundew; but the term is also sometimes used when the coil simply forms a ring.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Bot.) Rolled together downward, the tip occupying the center; -- a term used in reference to foliation or leafing, as in ferns.
  • transitive verb obsolete To make a circle around; to encompass.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective botany Used of leaves or similar parts that are coiled on themselves from the apex toward their base.
  • adjective medicine Round or ring-shaped, particularly with distinct margins forming some sort of motive; annular.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective shaped like a ring

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin circinātus, past participle of circināre, to make circular, from circinus, pair of compasses; see Circinus.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin circinatus , past participle of circinō ("to make round")

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Examples

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  • See comments on decircinate.

    August 15, 2011